Not applicable.
During recent years, the demand for detailed weather information has risen sharply. Personal computers and communication devices have increased the demand for more information because of their power to gather, manipulate, transmit and receive data. As a result, specialized information and value-added services are in great demand. End users no longer desire to gather, manipulate and evaluate raw data. Nowhere is this condition more apparent than with weather services across North America.
Years ago, radio and television broadcasters recognized an increasing demand for weather information from their audience, and thus increased the number of on-air weather segments as a means for increasing market ranking. Today, the demand for specific content in weather information has exceeded the ability of broadcasters to meet this demand. Virtually every facet of business and personal activities are continually influenced by the weather, good or bad.
In the United States as in most countries, a governmental agency (the National Weather Service in the United States), has the primary responsibility of generating weather products for the general public. These products, such as advisories, statements, and forecasts are generated and made available to third parties, such as broadcasters, newspapers, internet web sites, paging companies and others who, in turn, distribute them to the public. However, this chain of data custody is one way.
Today""s lifestyles are fast-paced and sophisticated. Requests for detailed weather information for specific applications outnumber the governments"" ability to process them. However, adhering to their mandated responsibility, the National Weather Service generates the general products for public consumption twice daily. This condition forces the public to interpret general and outdated advisories to meet their needs. Often, this interpretation is made erroneously. Even worse, these products are usually regional or national in scope, and may not apply to a particular location where various local activities are underway.
By way of example, weather warnings are broadcast by radio stations across the United States. These warnings identify certain weather impacts within a specified area. In most cases, the warning area includes one or more counties, covering dozens to hundreds of square miles. Most often, these threats (such as severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, etc.), only impact a very small zone within the warning area. These threats also move rapidly. As impacts approach specific zones, they are in fact, moving away from other zones, inside the total warning area. Essentially, the existing reporting system is insufficient to specifically identify and adequately warn of personal risk. Furthermore, if the threat is imminent, the existing system cannot and does not provide preventive measures for each user near or at the threat. Thus, by default, distant or unaffected users are placed xe2x80x9con alertxe2x80x9d unnecessarily when the threat may be moving away from their location.
Another common example further clarifies the problem. A family, excited to attend the championship softball game this upcoming weekend, closely monitors the local weather forecast. All week-long the forecast has advised fair to partly cloudy weather for game day. Early on game day, the forecast changes to partly cloudy, with a thirty percent chance for late afternoon showers. The family decides to attend the game, believing that the chances for rain are below their perceived risk level. Unknown to the family at midday, some clusters of showers are intensifying, and will place dangerous lightning over the game field. While the morning weather report was not completely inaccurate, the participants and spectators are exposed to risk. If later asked, it is likely the family members did not hear or remember the weather forecast. They also failed to link their limited knowledge of the weather to their own needs and risk exposure. They did not monitor changing weather events. Most likely, they had no ability to monitor developing risk at the game. Clearly, these people were forced to interpret outdated, limited information, as applied to their specific application.
Therefore, a need exists for a system to automatically and continuously provide consumer customized weather reports, advisories, alerts, forecasts and warnings relevant to a consumer-defined level of need or dynamic spatial location. It is to such a system that the present invention is directed.
The present invention provides an interactive weather advisory system and method of delivering individualized weather information. More specifically the present invention relates to a broadcast network for selectively transmitting individualized weather output signals to remote communicator devices. The broadcast network includes a user input database, a communicator location database, a weather analysis unit and a communication network.
The user input database contains user-defined parameters and each of the user-defined parameters desirably includes a spatial range identifier and a user profile. The user profile in each of the user-defined parameters at least identifies a communicator device associated with a particular user. The communicator location database contains real-time data indicative of the spatial locations of the communicator devices. In one preferred version of the present invention, the communicator location database is automatically and/or continuously updated by the communicator devices.
The weather information database contains real-time weather data for at least the spatial locations contained in the communicator location database. The term xe2x80x9cweather dataxe2x80x9d describes a wide variety of weather products, including but not limited to: past and current conditions of weather events; textual products, graphic products, and the like. The weather analysis unit receives the real-time weather data from the weather information database and automatically and continuously compares the spatial range identifier included in the user-defined parameters and the spatial locations of the corresponding communicator devices contained in the communicator location database with the real-time weather data and upon demand of the user, or even continuously, generates an individualized weather output signal including weather information within the spatial range identified by the spatial range identifier for the user-defined parameters. As new locations are defined by the communicator location database, the weather information database is automatically updated in real-time.
The communication network transmits each individualized weather output signal to the particular communicator device defined in the user profile included in the user-defined parameter corresponding with the real-time weather data and prediction of events. Thus, a user can receive weather information in real-time specific to the user""s immediate spatial location regardless of whether or not the user""s location remains fixed or dynamic throughout time.
Other advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when the following detailed description is read in view of the attached drawings and appended claims.